Thread by @socialistdogmom

good afternoon from this very exciting meeting

there are over 1000 people on the waitlist, which is currently closed to new applicants, for a housing voucher in charlottesville. even people who HAVE a voucher struggle to find a landlord that will take it.

the HAC policy subcommittee is exploring options to incentivize landlords to accept the vouchers. offering them low interest loans for energy efficiency improvements would address both climate concerns & the housing crisis.

one of the few members of the public here at the meeting is a woman who introduced herself as a landlord. she doesn’t have any interest in her tenants paying lower utility bills because of energy efficient unit updates since that cost is paid by them, not her.

(i think the underlying logic of this plan is that landlords should be making these updates REGARDLESS because climate change is going to kill us all, but it’s nice to be reminded that landlords are more interested in short term profit than the survival of humanity!)

committee members point out that landlords still get fair market value for the units they rent to voucher holders, so maybe there should be some more investigation into WHY landlords won’t accept housing vouchers.

there is a general perception that poor people are fucking wild animals who can’t live indoors, i guess.

the housing market here is seriously imbalanced. the HAC chair says all you have to do is hint you have an available unit & you have to fend off potential tenants “at any price.” “any additional hassle” (like accepting vouchers) may just not be worth it for landlords.

another committee member suggests using the existing housing voucher accepting landlords to sort of pilot the incentive program.

landlords get assistance making energy efficiency upgrades, low income tenants get lower utility bills, we chip away at the inevitable climate disaster... kinda seems like we all win?

joy johnson from the public housing association of residents says she doesn’t think the HUD-recommended training for landlords who accept vouchers is being done here.

there’s going to be another meeting another time to discuss a pilot version of the voucher acceptance incentive program. moving on to a discussion of naturally occurring affordable housing (i assume this means when houses undergo mitosis to create new houses spontaneously)

the subcommittee chair asks how the belmont apartments were affordable. sunshine mathon says those were “naturally occurring.” the units were not income restricted. he adds that the rents were low in part because the units were poorly maintained.

“a lot of this NOAH is just a long term reliable tenant that nobody bothered to raise the rent on,” says the HAC chair, calling it “a form of gentle rent control.”

i never thought about this, but apparently there is an issue even gathering data about how many rental properties exist. not all landlords use property management companies. data on owner-run rentals is gathered by comparing the address for the owner on the property records.

there is a surprising amount of power and influence wielded by those who bother to show up. there is one lone landlord here at this meeting & she has chimed in on the subcommittee’s business a few dozen times.

the HAC chair proposes surveying landlords by sending a survey to everyone for whom the property address & owner address are different on their property tax bill.

another observer of this meeting chimed in to say he doesn’t see the point of the survey since it’s obvious the only reason a landlord would rent below market rate is because (and i’m paraphrasing here) the unit is a shithole. i wish he were wrong.

thinking of the “affordable” apartments i’ve lived in over the years. one was demolished a year after i moved out because it was literally uninhabitable.

agenda item number 3: more incentives for landlords

this conversation started as slowing the rise of property assessments for landlords renting below market value, but sunshine just raised the issue of using that to incentivize landlords to accept vouchers. they’re going to look into whether this is possible.